In fields which require its personnel to have strength and stamina sufficient to perform certain vigorous tasks, it is not suitable to wait until the moment arrives to learn whether the person has the ability or not. Instead, tests must be devised for use during the hiring and selection process to eliminate the unqualified, as well as to be certain that the ability is retained by those who are hired.
Such tests, especially when hiring for publicly paid and competitive openings, and for retention and promotion, must be subject to standardization. This is required not only for fairness and adequacy of the test, but often by contract requirements which specify these requirements. Certainly they should be repeatable from test to test and from person to person.
An example of such a requirement is the ability of a fireman to knock a hole in a wall. The fireman must use a sledge or an axe, and in action he or she must strongly swing it with sufficient force and momentum as to break through the structure. In action, a single blow rarely accomplishes this, although it might. Instead, repeated blows are nearly always required.
Importantly, every one of the blows must be strong enough to damage the structure. Merely bouncing an axe off of a wall would be an exercise in futility. Thus, the person must have the strength to deliver sufficiently strong blows and the endurance to pound them repeatedly on the structure, each time with a damaging effect and finally with a cumulative effect. While a stronger blow is obviously better than a weaker blow, the force of each blow is not the answer. It is the accumulation of blows of damaging energy, and importantly how long it takes to get into the structure, which is in turn a function of how many blows by that person are needed. A too-long succession of lesser blows will not serve in fighting a fire. Thus, the test must measure the ability to achieve a given test result, and the time it takes to do it.
It is an object of this invention to provide a test device which can measure the person's capacity to create a given result with successive blows, and how long it takes for it.
Also, the test must be consistent from test to test and from person to person.
It is another object of this invention to provide a tester which can be calibrated before each test is started.